not your average scary movie

Rating: Null/10 (14 July 2003)

Countless scary movies, even teen slasher flicks, make use of the classic Gothic conceits. Remote locations, empty houses, dark and stormy nights. But 28 Days Later distinguishes itself as an urban dweller's horror film. The story begins when Jim awakens from a coma in a silent, empty hospital. Outside is a silent, empty London. He's completely alone in a place built by and for millions, now all gone. He wanders in the unreal city, past monuments and everyday places. It's natural for him to look for someone else, so he shouts hello over and over, and eventually turns into a church, hoping to at least find a priest. Soon enough, he discovers that he is, most unfortunately, not really alone.
From then, the movie uses the half-conscious language of an urbanite's paranoid nightmare. Shadows growing on a wall. Footsteps running up behind you. Getting a flat tire in a bad place. Knocking on the wrong door for help. The fumbling and the adrenalin. Get the car going. Get up the stairs. Get the door bolted. Just in time. Now that's terror.
This is the best part of 28 Days Later. The center of the movie, when Selena (another survivor) and Jim meet up with a father and daughter, is a chance to understand who these people might been before the plague. It may not be standard horror movie fare, but it was funny and affecting. The last part of the movie began to drift, however, oddly enough just as it drags out all the Gothic images, down to the remote mansion and an on-cue thunderstorm. The conflict becomes more one-dimensional and predictable, rather than being any sort of insightful commentary on human behavior. The infected are replaced with the vile, and the new threat hanging over the protagonists feels gratuitous. And with interest waning, I had too much time to start thinking over plot holes.
Overall the movie was worth seeing. The London scenes are amazing. The interlude in the green countryside was striking. The infected scared the hell out of me, while the protagonists easily drew me in. The actors playing Jim and Selena were terrific. And I'd watch Brendan Gleeson read aloud from a telephone book. I just found the last part of the film disappointing, despite getting to see Christopher Eccleston doing a bit of a Mad Hatter thing during the dinner scene.